Elon Musk's SpaceX Says It's Laying Off 10 Percent of Its Workforce

Just days after Elon Musk unleashed the first images of his aerospace's starship test rocket, SpaceX has announced that it is slimming down its workforce by roughly 1

0 percent.

continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations, "the company said in a statement to Gizmodo.

" This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team. We are grateful for everything they have accomplished and their commitment to SpaceX's mission. This action is taken only by the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary. ”

The cuts will be detected across the company, which employs roughly 6,000 people. But as the Los Angeles Times noted Friday, cuts have been intermittent at SpaceX. Musk was reportedly fired at least seven people last summer over disagreements about the performance speed of the company's Starlink satellite program; All were reported to have been senior management staffers. SpaceX in 2014 laid off a significant number of workers, with two forms structural technicians later suing the company that SpaceX violated labor laws by failing to properly notify them beforehand.

An internal email obtained by the Times from SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell about the most recent round of layoffs called the move "very difficult but necessary decision." Employees hit by the layoffs will be offered "a minimum of eight weeks' pay and other benefits," the Times said, citing Shotwell's email to staff

The layoffs come at a pivot time for the company, which is preparing for several significant milestones in the coming year. In addition to the deployment of some of its first Starlink satellites following a demo launch last year, the company is also ready for hop tests of its Starship test-flight rocket. In a tweet last week, Musk said test flights of the prototype for a Mars-bound spacecraft would be happening in the next four to eight weeks.

Musk previously estimated that the cost of the development of the program would run the company between $ 2 and $ 10 trillion. As part of its effort to find its most expensive programs in the coming years, the company raised an estimated $ 250 million in its first loan sale, the Wall Street Journal reported in November.

Despite the layoffs, SpaceX maintains that it is financially Secure. As the Times noted, Shotwell told CNBC last year that SpaceX had "many years" of profitability.